CHATTER

group it now appears to be. People didn’t like our attitudes. We were mocking. Upper-class twits were mocked. All the things you were supposed to look up to were mocked. Pantomime Princess Margarets were raced around. It wasn’t respectful. writers are constantly changing, though you never notice which hand is on the tiller. So there is visual humour, verbal humour, clever humour, silliness, rudeness, sophistication and brazen naughtiness, constantly alternating. OF all the films, the religious satire Monty Python’s Life Of Brian was the one which caused the most controversy. It’s the story of an ordinary chap called Brian Cohen, who is constantly mistaken for being the long-awaited Messiah. We anticipated some controversy but not quite the outrage it aroused. In America, it was on television news and they picketed the Warner Bros studios.

We didn’t have to do publicity on television for it because the protesters did it for us. IT started about 13 years after the movie in the football terraces. Fans sang it when they were losing. Then it went up the charts – to number one in some charts – and it was completely unexpected.

People now sing it everywhere, at football matches and funerals. In fact, it’s the number one song requested at British funerals.

Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life: A Sortabiography by Eric Idle is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, priced £20.